Traveling to the Crystal Palace pitch at the opening of this 16th day, Liverpool had the opportunity to occupy, at least temporarily, the Premier League leader’s chair for the first time this season. A victory on Saturday should allow the Reds to move one point ahead of Arsenal, who will try to get by at Aston Villa early in the evening (6:30 p.m.). Unrecognizable for a long time, very uninspired, Jürgen Klopp’s players managed to achieve their goal by snatching victory in the last quarter of an hour (2-1).
Applied defensively, on the lookout for the slightest space, Crystal Palace has long monopolized the rare opportunities of this not really exciting meeting. Jefferson Lerma came close to opening the scoring on a diving cross from Jordan Ayew which Odsonne Édouard intelligently let pass to the far post, but Alisson made a high quality reflex save before having the success to see the ball bounces off his right post (28th). A minute later, the Eagles obtained a penalty… finally canceled by the VAR for a prior foul by Will Hugues on Endo.
Ayew’s expulsion, the turning point of the match
They obtained a new one, this time reported by the VAR, for an illegal tackle by young Jarell Quansah (20 years old) on Jean-Philippe Mateta. And the French striker seized the opportunity to score his first goal of the season by wrong-footing Alisson (1-0, 57th). Liverpool then continued to thwart. Until the 75th minute, when Jordan Ayew had the bad idea of being sent off for a second warning.
In the process, the Reds finally found their bearings and Mohamed Salah equalized with his team’s first shot on target, taking advantage of an unfortunate deflection from Nathaniel Clyne (1-1, 76th). Finally launched, the Liverpool players then exerted stifling pressure on the London defense which they managed to crack again with a nice sudden strike from Harvey Elliott from the edge of the area (90th +1). Without shining, here they are at the top of the Championship, a first since November 2022.
200
Mohamed Salah scored his 200th goal for Liverpool on Saturday, in all competitions (the 150th in the Championship). He is the fifth player in the club’s history to reach this symbolic milestone.
